Marc Cohn & Suzanne Vega (August 29, 2008)

With Toby Lightman

On Sale Now!

Suzanne Vega
For fans that have grown up with her, the new album Beauty & Crime is a revealing look into Vega's continual evolution as songwriter and recording artist. For newcomers, it affords an opportunity to discover a unique voice that has, much like fellow die-hard New Yorker Lou Reed's, been shaped by keenly observing urban life, glancing down the side streets and peering into the shadows, empathizing with the outsiders and dreamers, the helpless and the hopeful. Reed isn't a far-fetched comparison: Vega, a fan, has said she'd been listening to his Berlin the day she wrote "Luka," the economically arranged, emotionally devastating story of domestic abuse from her second album, Solitude Standing , which became a surprise worldwide hit in 1987.

Marc Cohn
In the years that preceded the release of his new Decca album Join the Parade, Marc Cohn passed through several life-changing events. These events are what enabled him to reconnect with his songwriting muse, and they are in large part, what make Join the Parade an artistic, insightful and soulful statement.
Despite his time away from the recording studio, the acclaimed singer/songwriter, winner of the 1991 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, has continued to perform live and his audiences have remained steadfast. In 2005, Cohn compiled and self-released a solid live album, Live 04-05. But the decade that elapsed between Burning the Daze and Join the Parade was "not only longer than most people's music business careers," Marc notes with laughter, "it was long enough to have the record business disappear."
Mainly, Cohn is just excited to have an album out. He hopes that Join the Parade is a set of songs that people might want to hear, but it is in truth, a set of songs that people need to hear.